According to Apple, the update includes stability and performance improvements, as well as the following features:

Nighttime reading theme makes reading books in the dark easier on the eyes.

Full-screen layout lets you focus on the words without distraction.

iBooks now features an improved selection of fonts, including Athelas, Charter, Iowa, and Seravek.

Beautiful new classic covers for public domain books.

A redesigned annotation palette makes it easier to choose a color for your highlighted text.

The Cupertino, Calif., company is currently facing a class-action lawsuit over its iBooks pricing model, as well as a European Commission investigation into possible anti-competitive practices. Unlike Amazon, Apple worked with publishers to adopt an agency model for iBooks, allowing book publishers to set their own prices while providing Apple a cut of their sales. The company currently takes 30 percent of revenue from books sold on the iBookstore.

Now work out a deal with libraries, and it can replace the Kindle app for me

I love checking out library books for free from home and reading them on my iPad. Kindle has some arrangement with libraries, and is a good reader appalmost an iBooks clone, but it has some annoying rough edges. Id use iBooks if I could.

(Purchasing ease is not a factor between the two apps, since I dont want to own a lot of books. I read them and move on.)

Well, I just updated and I opened a book real quick just to see how things look.

I'm liking all of the additional fonts, there are 7 in total to choose from now. I'm also liking the full page option.

I don't think that night time mode is for me though. It's a matter of preference, and it seems like all it does is swap the text with the background, making them inverse. That option was always in the iPad wasn't it? It's under settings/general/accessibility/white on black. But it's a good option to have directly in iBooks for those people who need it.

Interesting: the new iBooks update only requires iOS 4.2. I can get it without committing iOS5cide.

What's wrong with iOS 5? Why are you still using 4.2?

I've been using 5 since it was available and everything is smooth here, plus I like the extra multitouch gestures. And don't you need 5 for wireless syncing and iCloud? It's a big plus not having to plug in the iPad to a computer anymore.

Well, I just updated and I opened a book real quick just to see how things look.

I'm liking all of the additional fonts, there are 7 in total to choose from now. I'm also liking the full page option.

I don't think that night time mode is for me though. It's a matter of preference, and it seems like all it does is swap the text with the background, making them inverse. That option was always in the iPad wasn't it? It's under settings/general/accessibility/white on black. But it's a good option to have directly in iBooks for those people who need it.

I just updated on my iPhone and I don't really see a full screen option. I thought it would fill up the entire screen like the kindle app(the only thing that's better on the kindle app compared to ibooks) but it seems to take up the same amount of space as before. Night mode and the new fonts are cool.

I just updated on my iPhone and I don't really see a full screen option. I don't really see any difference. I thought it would fill up the screen like the kindle app but it seems to take up the same amount of space. Night mode and the new fonts are cool.

On the iPad, full screen replaces the book look with the full page. Just grabs a little screen space back. A nice, subtle feature.